ARTIST BIO:
Davon McMillian (b. 1990, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Los Angeles, California. His practice centers on painting and drawing, with a focus on portraiture and figuration as a way to explore identity, memory, displacement, and the unconscious mind. He received his BA in Studio Arts from California State University, Chico in 2020, following a year studying language and culture in Japan.
Before transitioning fully into his practice, McMillian worked as a commercial designer in retail and fashion for over a decade (2014–2024), an experience that culminated in the founding of his own clothing brand, Mednokta®, which he later evolved into his art studio, Mednokta® Art Dept.
ARTIST STATEMENT (c. 2025):
My work explores how identity is shaped, concealed, or distorted through lived experience. I focus on the psychological masks we build—formed through cultural inheritance, social adaptation, and survival. Central to my practice is a personal framework I call “trinity,” representing mind, body, and soul. It serves as a way to investigate what exists beneath performance and how that core self shifts under pressure.
Through painting and drawing, I depict figures in moments of formation or rupture—portraits that suggest internal conflict, fragmentation, or quiet resistance. I’m particularly interested in how these ideas relate to the Black male experience in America, where interior life is often buried beneath imposed roles. My own history with displacement, mental health, and masculinity shapes how I approach these themes. I don’t seek resolution in the work, but rather clarity: to show the mask, and to ask what it’s hiding, protecting, or holding back.
Not every mask must be removed, but every mask should be seen for what it is.